In the words of famed actor and comedian Bill Murray, “It’s Groundhog Day…again.” The memorable day is celebrated in the United States every February 2. In Woodstock, located less than three hours north of ISU, Groundhog Day is celebrated on the same square where Bill Murray’s character Phil Connors stood day after day reporting whether the groundhog would see his shadow or it would be an early spring.
It has been twenty-seven years since the classic movie was released. For the town of Woodstock, it is the biggest attraction of the year. An opportunity arose for Illinois State University’s Innovation Consulting Community (ICC) to grow and enhance the annual event, which is important to Woodstock for many reasons.
Each year the ICC offers projects from a wide range of areas for non-profit and for-profit organizations. Illinois State University students interested in participating during the next academic year in the ISU Innovation Consulting Community, an extracurricular, interdisciplinary, project-based professional development experience, can email the following: innovationconsulting@ilstu.edu.
Student team supporting the Woodstock Groundhog Days Committee is comprised of Steven Smith (marketing), Jonathan Messina (marketing), Allison Drechny (industrial-organizational/social psychology), Nabeela Polly (Master of Business Administration), Blain Keene (marketing), and Katie Smith (public relations, not pictured). They engaged in field research on February 2, 2020, with project mentor Dr. Kristina Kaufman.
